Lancaster County man convicted of having indecent contact with girl, 5, in Pottstown

NORRISTOWN — A Lancaster County man has been convicted of a charge that he had indecent contact with a 5-year-old girl while he visited a Pottstown residence.

Vernon Lee Davis, 63, of the 900 block of Manor Boulevard, Manor Township, was convicted by a Montgomery County jury of a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault of a person under age 13 in connection with the October 2010 incident at a home in the 400 block of East High Street. The jury, after hearing testimony over the course of two days, acquitted Davis of a charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

Judge Joseph A. Smyth, who presided over the trial, deferred sentencing Davis so that court officials can complete a background investigative report about him. The judge allowed Davis to remain free on bail pending a sentencing hearing later this year.

Davis, who was 61 at the time of the incident, faces a possible maximum sentence of 2˝ to five years in prison on the charge.

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During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Abidiwan-Lupo alleged Davis, who was visiting friends in the Pottstown area to attend a car show, touched the girl in an inappropriate manner while he was staying at the borough residence. The girl disclosed the touching incident to a relative a day after the incident and that relative noticed the child’s genital area appeared inflamed, according to testimony and court documents.

“A child who’s touched loses their innocence. Her innocence was taken away by him,” Abidiwan-Lupo argued to the jury, referring to Davis, during his closing statement.

The girl, now 7, testified during the trial and positively identified Davis as the man who indecently assaulted her. The jury also viewed a videotape recording of the girl’s initial interview by child social workers after the incident.

“He told her not to tell anyone after he finished touching her,” Pottstown Detective Heather Long, who investigated the matter, wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Davis did not testify during the trial. However, several of his friends and relatives testified as character witnesses, claiming Davis had a reputation for being “a peaceful and law-abiding person.”

Defense lawyer Francis Genovese implied Davis could not have been alone with the girl because there was no privacy in an apartment where eight people were staying at the time. Relatives of the child testified she had fallen on playground equipment the same day and Genovese implied that might have explained why the girl’s genital area appeared inflamed.

“He took 60 plus years of living a life as a peaceful, law-abiding person and threw it out the window to become a child molester? Does that make sense to you?” Genovese argued to the jury.

Testimony revealed Davis, when initially questioned by police, claimed he was not alone with the child and that he didn’t know why the girl would make the allegations. However, several months later as the investigation progressed, Davis confessed to having inappropriate contact with the girl.

Genovese implied Davis only confessed after being held in a holding cell for several hours after police took him into custody several months after the incident.

Abidiwan-Lupo maintained the girl had no reason to fabricate the allegations.